The invention relates to a cabinet hinge having a wall-related part in the form of an elongated arm of substantially channel-like cross section which is coupled pivotingly by a linkage to the door-related part. The door is mounted for adjustment in at least two coordinate directions on a mounting plate which can be fastened to the wall of a cabinet, while the flanges of the channel at least partially straddle the mounting plate. The web portion of the arm, at its end remote from the hinge link, has a longitudinal slot with an open end or an enlarged pass-through opening through which passes the shank of a holding screw threaded into the mounting plate. The web is also provided at a distance from the slot with a tap through which a threaded spindle is driven so as to thrust against the mounting plate. In an inside surface of the arm facing the mounting plate there is provided an abutment which projects toward the hinge-link end of the arm, and in the area of the mounting plate opposite this abutment a projecting resilient catch is provided. The catch on the mounting-plate is adapted to engage the abutment on the arm when the arm is displaced lengthwise parallel to the wall on the mounting plate, just as the shank of the screw driven into the mounting plate enters into the rearward area of transition between the longitudinal slot and the pass-through opening or open end of the slot.
Cabinet hinges of this kind (U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,706) have overcome the disadvantage of older hinges which consists in the danger of the separation of the arm from the mounting plate and thus the dropping of a door attached to a cabinet with such hinges as long as the screws holding the arm on the mounting plate are not tightened, because, for example, a precise adjustment of the depth or of the overlap of the door relative to the cabinet is yet to be performed. By means of the catch on the mounting plate and its abutment on the arm, which engage one another when the arm is pushed onto the mounting plate, the assurance is provided that accidental separation is no longer possible. At the same time the possibility of the adjustment of the arm on the mounting plate and thus of the door relative to the cabinet is made no more difficult than it was in the case of the older hinges. The known hinges have proven practical and are widely used.
To release the safety catch in these hinges when a door is to be removed from the cabinet for furniture moving purposes, it is necessary only to back out the screw holding the arm on the mounting plate by such an additional amount that the arm can be raised at right angles to the wall such that the abutment on the arm can be disengaged from the catch on the mounting plate. In the raised position the arm can then be withdrawn from the mounting plate. The deliberate backing off of the screws for this purpose does not involve much work, but it has the disadvantage that the safety-catching of the arm on the mounting plate is not assured when the door is later reinstalled on the cabinet if one has forgotten to turn the screw back into the mounting plate by the necessary amount.
Accordingly, the invention is addressed to the problem of improving the known hinges such that the safety catch securing the arm on the mounting plate can be more easily and quickly disengaged in case of need without loss of effectiveness and security, and can be automatically restored upon subsequent reassembly without the need for special measures or manipulations.